Surprise Yourself - June 2021
Live content ​ | Pinterest Board
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The Brief
After months of being stuck inside, Pinterest was on a mission to help Londoners dust off the cobwebs, embrace something new, and surprise themselves. Through a multi-channel media campaign, Time Out and Pinterest created an inspiring and rich content series designed to disrupt the predictable and spark action – starting with exploring on Pinterest.
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The insight
We’ve lost a lot of time in the last year and a bit, haven’t we? Living through a pandemic truly gave us a collective feeling of being stuck. We craved surprise and imagination – but we didn’t always know where to start. One of life’s greatest pleasures is discovering those things that spark inspiration, and we knew that together with Pinterest, we could help Time Out readers do exactly that.
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What we did
We created a series of digital articles and social posts focused on uncovering the unusual, exciting and surprising. Led by Pinterest’s 2021 ‘Pinterest Predicts’ trend report, we showcased first-person guides to taking on new hobbies in London, from upcycling to cooking with spice. Through easily digestible Time Out listicles, we uncovered how Londoners can learn new skills in the capital, and we generated a quiz to guide people to a London trend that best suits them – from joining a choir to taking up stand-up paddleboarding. Pinterest was woven through all the content as the enabler and the inspiration behind surprising yourself; we even created our very own Time Out Surprise Yourself Pinterest board! And to give that extra helping hand we launched The Surprise Yourself Fund where three lucky readers won £1,000 to boost their passion projects. We're nice like that.
Our competition had a total of 304 entries across a broad range of creators, from puppet making to ceramics and jewellery making.
